Louie Vazquez is not your average firm founder.
"I was a horrible employee, not that great of an accountant," Vazquez said. "I don't really like accounting. I don't really like tax."
"I wasn't that great of an accounting student either. I struggled to maintain a 3.0. I never graduated college," he continued.
Vazquez studied accounting and did a tax internship out of school. He switched to retail management for over a year before working in construction accounting for another year. Then he returned to public accounting.
"It doesn't play off my strengths much," he explained. "I struggle with organization. I'm not very meticulous. You know, just a lot of those traits that make a good accountant."
But what he does like is the advisory aspects and dealing with the Internal Revenue Service.
And as an extrovert, Vazquez most enjoys the interpersonal and communication aspect of the profession. While working at a firm, a partner recognized this in Vazquez and showed him the mechanics of an accounting firm — "not necessarily how to do it, but just how it all worked. And I was able to communicate on his behalf."
"I just really wanted to own a business," he said. "I hated being an employee. I was not a very good employee. I have all the qualities that make a bad employee but make a good business owner."
The catalyst to starting his own firm came when he brought on a big account. The client said that if Vazquez had had his own firm, the client would have gone straight to him. This gave him the confidence to go on his own in 2016.
Vazquez founded Profit & Wealth Tax Advisors with his wife. In his first year, he made about $95,000. The firm, with eight remote employees, now has about 40 small and midsized business clients and brought in about $1 million last year. It operates in California and New York.
An unorthodox firm
As an unconventional accountant, Vazquez runs his firm in what might be considered an unorthodox fashion.
Take, for instance, firm partner Erin Sosa. Her prior experience was in sales, and she is not an accountant by trade. Instead, she operates as a firm manager. She is the first point of contact for all clients, whether they be new or recurring, funneling clients through the business. Depending on the inquiry, she forwards them to the appropriate team member based on skill and department. She screens potential clients before handing them off to Vazquez or another senior accountant for review.
"The information we're getting from the client gives us a better picture of where they stand, and where their business stands financially and tax wise," Sosa said. "It lets us know, 'Do we need to come in and clean up a lot of years? Or are they on the path to hit the goal they're looking to hit? How can we assist them in hitting that goal and expanding their business?'"
Sosa also handles government correspondence and assists in sales.
Profit & Wealth Tax Advisors offers client advisory services on a subscription model "for the business owner to basically choose how much involvement they want from us," Vazquez explained. The packages start as low as $1,000 a month and go as high as $4,500 a month.
"We're really big on advisory — not just putting together the tax filings and 'see you next year,' but really being involved year round and giving good financial advice," he said.
The firm began the transition to this model in the second half of 2021 from a traditional pay per service model. Last year, it completed about 400 filings. This year, now that the subscription model has been fully implemented, Vazquez expects to do between 100 to 150.
"It's a lot less stressful because it's not dealing with so many people, and the quality of the person you're dealing with is a lot better," he said. "People are paying a subscription for the relationship. They're not paying for what we're doing. Half of these people don't even care what we're doing. They're paying to have this relationship of trusted advisors"
Looking ahead, Vazquez hopes to grow his firm and expand to Chicago, Texas or Miami. He also hopes to start servicing real estate clients. His advice to accountants looking to start their own firm is to challenge the traditional firm model. For Vazquez, that's his subscription model.
"If we would have implemented this in 2019, 2018, I can only imagine where we'd be now."
This story is part of new series on how accounting entrepreneurs launched their practices. Look for more
